Sedimentological and Grain Size Characteristics of Two Lake Cores from Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

Two lake cores from Khajjiar (length 746 cm) and Rewalsar lakes (length 647 cm) in Himachal Pradesh (India) were retrieved to understand the sedimentological characteristics and variation in grain size distribution. Both the lake cores are Upper Holocene in age. The Rewalsar lake sediments are composed predominantly of silt with small amounts of clay, whereas the Khajjiar sediments contain sand, silt and clay and both cores have high carbonaceous matter. The standard deviation ranges from 0.88 ϕ to 2.56 ϕ for Khajjiar lake and from 0.957 ϕ to 2.264 ϕ for Rewalsar lake, indicating poorly to very poorly sorted core sediments. The values of the Kurtosis vary between 0.678 ϕ and 1.205 ϕ for Khajjiar lake and from 0.8 ϕ to 1.2.4 ϕ for Rewalsar lake, viewing platykurtic to leptokurtic nature. Further, the skewness value ranges from -0.097 ϕ to 0.240 ϕ for Khajjiar lake and 0.079 ϕ to 0.25 ϕ for Rewalsar lake revealing fine to symmetrical skewness model. The bivariate plots by using the grain-size parameters were also interpreted. The Total Organic Carbon (TOC) is higher in the Khajjiar lake sediments (0.9 to 31.2%; av. 10.6%), compared to that in the Rewalsar lake sediments (1.0 to 9.0; av. 2.6%). The sedimentological characteristics indicate that the energy conditions were linked to the climatic conditions prevailing in the area. In general, the Khajjiar lake core is composed of relatively coarser sediments and more affected by arid conditions while the fine fraction of the Rewalsar shows the consequence of lower energy conditions. The Khajjiar lake shows the transition from fluctuating conditions (zone 1) to humid (zone 2) to arid (zone 3), while the Rewalsar shows the change from fluctuating (zone 1) to humid conditions (zones 2 and 3). The similarity between zone 1 and 2 of both the lake profiles shows that both lakes have experienced similar climatic conditions during the deposition, revealing domination of fluctuating and arid conditions.